While participating in sports such as bicycling, skateboarding, ice skating and skiing people wear helmets to protect their heads. Typical helmets are made of a rigid material like polystyrene and may include a plastic or carbon fiber shell. Many helmets, especially those used in bicycling and skateboarding are designed to sit on top of the users head without covering the ears. In order to fix the helmet in position on a user's head, a pair of adjustable straps with clips extends from the lower sides of the helmet around a wearer's chin.
However, many helmets do not cover the ears leaving them susceptible to the cold. This is especially true when people are quickly moving outside in colder environments. In order to solve the problem a person may wear earmuffs under the helmet, but some people find this is uncomfortable. A bulky band connecting the pods of the earmuffs causes the helmet to incorrectly fit the wearer's head. Moreover, an uncomfortable helmet may distract the wearer from concentrating on the sporting activity resulting in poor performance. It is desirable to eliminate the band under the helmet so that the helmet comfortably and accurately fits the head of the wearer.
Helmets have been designed to include a protective cover where the shell of the helmet extends over the ears of the wearer, however, such helmets are problematic in that the shell is rigid and there is little ability to adjust to changing weather conditions and temperatures throughout the day. As the day becomes hotter, there is no ability to remove the protective ear shell portion of the rigid helmet without completely taking off the helmet and losing the protective covering altogether. Furthermore, there is little ability to adjust to the changing temperature of the helmet wearer as the wearer warms up during exercise. For example, a warmed up skier may become uncomfortably warm in the rigid helmet and forced to remove the helmet completely to cool off.
Some helmets like the Giro brand ski/snowboard helmets have removable pads that attach to the side of the helmet and are disposed on the inner side of the strap. Such pads may also be fixedly attached to the helmet strap by passing through a lower loop near the chin of the wearer. However, these pads are problematic in that they are specifically sized and shaped in order to precisely match the helmet configuration. These are not easily interchangeable between different helmet types, styles, brands, and configurations. This is problematic when a helmet user grows into a larger helmet, and larger corresponding pads must be obtained in order to fit the larger helmet. Additionally, if the helmet user purchases a second helmet or upgrades helmets by changes style or brand type, the ear pads are not easily interchangeable between helmets.
Another solution, identified in U.S. Pat. No. 5,231,704, is to provide a covering member in the shape of a truncated cone or triangle that receives the loose end of a chinstrap and comprises coupling means located on each opposing interior side of the covering member that couple together above the point in which front and rear chinstraps are joined together.
What is needed is a helmet earmuff that eliminates the band under the helmet so that the helmet comfortably and accurately fits the head of the wearer, an earmuff which is removable and adjustable from a helmet over the course of its use, an earmuff which is easily interchangeable between helmet sizes, styles, brands, and configurations, an earmuff with improved ability to secure the earmuff to the helmet straps, an earmuff that improves the comfort to the wearer along the entire length of the straps, and an earmuff that provides protection from heat loss about the lower head/neck portion of the wearer and/or the crown of the wearer.